In “Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree,” the biggest villain is toxic positivity

Elden Ringit is new Shadow of the Erdtree The expansion is occasionally – like the rest of the great open-world fantasy game – extremely difficult. Ever since the DLC was released on June 21st, there have been experienced players finding themselves on their backs to some mouth-breathing mage, covered in their own blood, too weak to react to the final blow. So instead, they've complained about developer FromSoftware for a series of harsh Steam reviews and Reddit outbreaks. The outrage was great and often unjust. For 13 years, the Dark souls creator was synonymous with the words “too hard”. They are not the bad guys here. Bad, inside Shadow of the Erdtreeit is more hidden.

Falling into the shadows, abandoning all his love, the soft-spoken Miquella the Kind is a baby-faced monster. He is wicked for his evil. Like a spider waiting for the right thing, the Elden Ring the demigod makes a beautiful web for his victims Shadow of the Erdtree. He massages the minds of fans until they're stripped of anything but artificial hope, and in that way, he's not so different from a modern-day peddler of “toxic positivity.”

Shadow of the ErdtreeThe luscious Land of Shadow – with its royal churches and haphazardly strewn greatswords – is several universes away from having cheetahs, so I'll explain. Toxic positivity, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, broadly refers to an “unproductive and useless” attachment to only good vibes. This can look like different things. Some of them are well-intentioned, like your post-layoff friends, promising that your finances will sort of work themselves out.

In other cases, all-or-nothing positivity acts more like a cow to make you more pleasant. Imagine your manager insisting that you should be grateful for unpaid overtime. Or a fanboy thanking Elon Musk for his Cybertruck's faulty brakes. Or overly happy TikTok dancerbeaming instructions to the back of your skull: chase away bad energy, embrace contentment, don't look at the carnage that proves it hasn't won.

Michela, like a grinning oil baron, calms anyone who gets in his way with this calculated indifference. You will find the same type of superficiality Shell ads which depict their CEOs planting reddish red cyclamen in the garden or indoors Shein influencersreminders to keep an “open mind” about a company rife with allegations of worker exploitation. This positivity wants you to be obedient so that you buy something. In Mikaela's case, he wants you to buy into his dream.

Mikaela – born weak, with thin wrists – would like to be a god. He has lost faith in the Golden Order, the guiding principle of his theocratic mother Queen Marika, who could not protect his twin sister Malenia from her disease, Scarlet Rot. In Shadow of the Erdtreewe learn that, in order to leave his legacy behind and start over, Michaela has stripped himself of his restrictive flesh (in addition to other afflictions such as doubt, fear, and his heart).

He wants to create a new religion, one that Sacred Crown Helm item The description suggests that it might benefit “the lowly and meek,” creeping creatures like him and his sister, who rot, languish, and lie. But having given up his golden power, Michaela must be reckoned with when recruiting his soldiers. Thus it brings out sweetness, like an orange with its peel removed.

This is before you even start Shadow of the Erdtree. You enter the game by shoving a wrinkled hand into Mikaela's discarded body. Before you do, NPC Needle Knight Leda coolly says that, “like you, I was guided by faith. [Kindly Miquella’s] honorable path”. Her assessment is arrogant, but accurate.

Elden Ring Players were eager to meet Miquella because, for two years, he was a seemingly sympathetic player in the background. Developer FromSoftware teases you with some details — official mentions of his name and his desiccated husk of flesh, which his half-brother Mohg holds on a throne made of spider-webbed pelvic bone.

It seemed unfair that Michaela should be left out. item descriptions, such as this one Miquella's Needle, presented the man as a patron, a champion of small, easily impressed weaklings. It was encouraging. Dedicated people Reddit threads to Michaela, hoping he's as good as he's supposed to be — a speck of light to illuminate Elden Ringhis coal cynicism.

For some characters, Mikaela does they represent hope. NPC Hornsent, who complains that Marika betrayed his clan, tells you “I believe Miquella's apology, when he says our surrender will come.”

But salvation depends on your faith in Michaela's goodness.

“I urge you, follow Michaela,” Hornsed says. “As long as you keep his feet, you will not be my enemy.” Only good vibes! Or died.

Later, in key boss fights, Shadow of the Erdtree reveals that Michaela's dictatorial positivity is a supernatural power. During the Needle Knight Leda match, Miquella can be seen forcing even the rude salesman Moore, who treats you like a best friend, to throw harmful pots of Rot at you. During his own match, Miquella can literally steal your heart with sweet nothings.

“I promise you,” he says, pulling you close to his lips, “a millennial journey guided by compassion.” If he grabs you again, you sink to one knee like a befuddled man in Vegas. Then you die.

It is a pity. Mikaela seems worth getting to know, otherwise. His calculated charm makes him a unique FromSoftware villain. Most of the developer's monsters are obvious – gooey skeletons, venom-spewing snakes, evil kings who seem to be smothered in the yellow bile of their souls.

But Mikaela is a snow angel, with long tresses that curl and soothe the eye like ocean water. The pale of the moon is an empty plate to imagine its perfect world. But this world denies the truth: true peace means accepting good and the unimaginably bad. This is what makes Mikaela's positivity so alluring and so dangerous.